The Light Crust Doughboys Are on the Air: Celebrating Seventy Years of Texas Music (Evelyn Oppenheimer Series)

Rating:
Summary: A Pulitzer Prize For Texana!
Review: Finally---the definitive history of The Light Crust Doughboys, one of the "big three" in the history of western swing and Texas-style country music (the other being Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys and Milton Brown's Musical Brownies). But this must-have book is so much more than a book: history "comes alive" with the included music CD which features a classic Doughboys' decade, the 1940s, alongside their contemporary Grammy-recognized work. And it's in this newer work that fans can really see the legacy and enduring power of a band that's been called country music's greatest historical band. In songs like "Texas Women", "Sending Me You", "Looking Through A Stained Glass Darkly", and "Amarillo, Where The Wind Blows Free, the reader can see how The Light Crust Doughboys keep evolving as artists while always keeping a foot in the best of their Texan and American past.The Light Crust Doughboys are one of the select bands in country music history equally renowned for their instrumental as well as their vocal prowess. Long known for their eclectic approach to music, combining elements of the blues, cowboy music, old-time, gospel, and dixieland, The Light Crust Doughboys are true American ambassadors and modern troubadours of American music. You'll read here of The Doughboys' pioneering use of electric guitar and electric bass in American music. You'll read that they pioneered being a western band in Hollywood's golden age (they pre-dated Bob Wills' film debut by four years). You'll read and hear how they combined gospel music and western swing (with gospel legend James Blackwood) to develop gospel western swing. You'll read how they came up with the idea of blending Pacific/California surf and Texas western swing with Ventures' guitar great, Nokie Edwards, resulting in critically-acclaimed roots music including an Americana Christmas album! Let's all hope that this book paves the way for long-overdue recognition in the NashVegas-dominated Country Music Hall of Fame as well as "early influences" recognition in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Is there a Pulitzer Prize for music history or Texana? This book and CD has earned it! And, do your heart and ears a big favor by searching for other Light Crust Doughboys' music and videos at Amazon.

Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable, fact-filled, recommended blend
Review: The Light Crust Doughboys Are On The Air: Celebrating Seventy Years Of Texas Music by John Mark Dempsey (a native Texan and Assistant Professor of Broadcast Journalism, University of North Texas) is an enjoyable and informative study of The Light Crust Doughboys band and their Texas music, which was broadcast in the "golden era" of radio. Their long-lived radio show lasted from 1930 to 1952, and their particular brand of gospel music was nominated for the Grammys in 1998, 1999, 2001, and 2002. An enjoyable, fact-filled, enthusiastically recommended blend of biographical background and cogent musical assessment of this evolving group, The Light Crust Doughboys Are On The Air is enhanced with a music CD featuring 30 of the band's most popular and beloved songs.